Special Education Services

Secondary Transition

What's New?

11th Annual Transition Conference - October 29-30, 2015
The 11th Annual Transition Conference for transition aged youth and young adults with disabilities, their family members and teachers, vocational professionals, caregivers, health care professionals, college students pursuing careers in special education and community advocates will be held at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, 2233 South Martin Luther King Drive in Chicago, Illinois October 29-30, 2015.

The conference, titled “Stepping Stones of Transition”, invites participants to imagine the possibilities for students with disabilities in the areas of independent living, education and training, employment, community integration, health care, and self-advocacy.

Conference sessions will be organized into 4 tracks: Education, Employment, Community and Healthcare.

Thursday, October 29th features keynote speaker Steve Hopkins, co-founder of 3E Love, and multi-choice Break-Out Sessions with a Welcome Reception at the end of the day. Friday, October 30th concludes the conference and highlights multi-choice Plenary Sessions and Break-Out Sessions in the morning. The conference concludes at 1:00 p.m.

Health and the Transition to Adulthood: Building the Foundation for Success
The Integrated Services Committee of the Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and UIC Specialized Care for Children presented a webinar for parents and families on incorporating health goals into IEPs and transition plans. The recording of this webinar is available here. The resources and tools mentioned in this webinar are available here.

New "Soft Skills" Curriculum for Youth Released by the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP)
ODEP has unveiled a new curriculum designed to strengthen the professionalism and interpersonal skills of young people preparing to enter the workforce. Titled "Skills to Pay the Bills: Mastering Soft Skills for Workplace Success," this creative and universally designed program features a series of interactive, hands-on activities that educators and youth service professionals can use with youth both with and without disabilities. The curriculum is available in both English and Spanish.

Transition Practices Alignment: Evidence-Based Practices, Tools and Resources, and Lesson Plans
The Transition Practices Alignment tool assists in the development of goals, strategies and activities for district and/or school improvement plans and provides a go-to resource for teachers or any transition stakeholder to find evidenced-based practices, peruse a variety of tools and resources, and/or research lesson plans. This tool uses the Transition Practices Self Assessment (TPSA) categories of program structure, interagency collaboration, student-focused planning, student development and family involvement for easy correlation with TPSA data.

NSTTAC Presenter Guides
To assist states and local school districts with professional development efforts in the area of secondary transition, NSTTAC has created presenter guides on (a) Indicator 13, and (b) Transition Assessment. These guides include ready-made power points, scripted notes (included in the power point), and all necessary materials needed to complete the activities included in the presentation. Each topic includes a 3-hour presentation and a 1 hour presentation. The guides may also be combined to create full day trainings.

Proyecto Visión
This bilingual web site is a project to connect Latinos with disabilities to employment opportunities. It provides information on education, employment, and independent living resources and lists hundreds of job, scholarship, internship, grant, award, and other educational opportunities of interest to Latinos and students with disabilities.

Including: information regarding district requirements for Indicator 13, tools and resources for FACTS data collection, district tools such as the Illinois Indicator 13 checklist, a Transition Practices Self-Assessment, a comprehensive PowerPoint slide show on building a better IEP, a transition plan sample, and links to resources from the National Secondary Transition Technical Assistance Center.

Transition Outreach Training for Adult Living (TOTAL) Project

In
October 2002 The US Department of Education, Office of
Special Education and Rehabilitation Services (OSERS) awarded
the Illinois State Board of Education an IDEA Model Outreach
grant to implement a multi-tiered statewide training
and
technical assistance package on research based best practices
in secondary transition. The key focus of TOTAL was to
systematically build capacity to provide state-of-the-art
transition services throughout Illinois. Though the Project
period ended in March 2007, the tools and resources developed
under the Project are supported by the Illinois State
Board of Education and continue to be accessed and implemented
in school districts and special education cooperatives
across the state.

The link below provides additional information
about the TOTAL training modules and access to the TOTAL
module videos,
the power point slides, tools and resources.

The Federal Interagency Partners in Transition Workgroup has developed a directory of federally funded projects and centers focusing on youth transition. The directory includes fifteen descriptions, detailing the name of the project or center, the funding agency, and the target audience. The directory also contains a brief description of each center's purpose, the services they provide, and links to center websites and publications. It is important to note that the document is not exhaustive of all transition services extended through federal, state, or local entities.

Evidence-based Practices in Secondary Transition

This Users Guide was developed by an IDEA Partnership* cross-stakeholder group of practitioners and Technical Assistance Center personnel to provide efficient access to and use of research and materials located on the National Secondary Transition Technical Assistance Center website.

These tools reference educational practices and specific strategies supported by rigorous educational research which have yielded evidence of positive results for students. Included in this Users Guide are a glossary of terms and a PowerPoint with presenter information. Highlighted throughout are various materials regarding transition research synthesis, lesson plan starters, and professional development resources.

To access the Users Guide, please go to www.ideapartnership.org and click on the Guide under Partnership User Guides on the right side of the home page.

*The IDEA Partnership is a collaboration of more than fifty-five national organizations and technical assistance providers at national, state, and local levels. The Partnership is dedicated to improving outcomes for students and youth with disabilities by joining state agencies and stakeholders through shared work and learning.